East cost dolphin deaths due to virus

This summer has been wrought with dead dolphin strandings up and down the east coast of the United States. Approximately 333 dead dolphins have washed ashore from New York to North Carolina since 1 July. The deaths appear to be due to cetacean morbillivirus, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

Although the dolphin death toll is nine times higher this year than other years, officials cannot yet determine the end of the epidemic. NOAA tentatively predicts that strandings will continue through spring 2014.